The UNFCCC Secretariat has published a report providing an overview of developing countries’ costed and non-costed needs to address climate change under the Convention and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Prepared by the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF), the report includes information from reports at the national, regional, and global level and discusses gaps, challenges, and opportunities in determining developing countries’ needs.

The information contained in the ‘Second report on the determination of the needs of developing country Parties related to implementing the Convention and the Paris Agreement’ (SCF/2024/35/4) is broken down by costed and non-costed needs, time frame, theme and sector, geography, and means of implementation.

The main sources of information are the reports submitted by developing countries under the Convention and the Paris Agreement, including adaptation communications, biennial update reports (BURs), low-emission development strategies (LEDS), national adaptation plans (NAPs), national communications, nationally determined contributions (NDCs), technology action plans (TAPs), and technology needs assessments (TNAs).

For example, the report reveals that NDCs from 142 developing countries contain a total of 5,760 needs. Of the total number of costed needs identified by 98 developing countries in their NDCs, USD 2.4 trillion is costed for conditional actions (48% of the total), and USD 882 billion is costed for unconditional actions (18% of the total).

Because different communications under the Convention and the Paris Agreement have different time horizons, the time frames of identified needs fall within 2006-2070. Similarly, the thematic balance of needs depends on the type of report. For instance, adaptation communications, NAPs, national communications, NDCs, TAPs, and TNAs identify adaptation needs more frequently, whereas BURs and LEDS identify mitigation needs more often.

Across reports, the energy sector accounts for a significant proportion of costed mitigation needs, according to the report, one exception being TNAs, where the agrifood sector accounts for the largest proportion of costed mitigation needs.

Sectors for which developing countries identify the highest shares of costed adaptation needs differ by types of communications. For example, in NAPs, almost half of costed needs are cross-cutting across sectors, with the infrastructure and building sector accounting for 16%, the agrifood sector for 9%, and the energy sector for 8% of costed adaptation needs. Adaptation communications identify significant costs in transportation (35%), water supply (21%), and disaster risk management (DRM) (18%).

In terms of geographical distribution, the report finds that African and Asian countries identify the highest number of needs across the different types of reports. Significant needs are reported by least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS). The report identifies finance as the means of implementation most commonly reported as lacking.

The SCF invites the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC and the COP serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) to consider a set of recommendations on how bast to support the determination of the needs of developing countries.

The report was published on 10 September, in advance of the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29), taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11-22 November. [Publication: Second report on the determination of the needs of developing country Parties related to implementing the Convention and the Paris Agreement]